Assessing salaries, reforming controls, and account management for departments – what’s new in ‘the new GDS’


Government’s most familiar digital transformation institution is to remain in place, with a new and greatly expanded remit, ministers revealed this week. PublicTechnology examines the detail to find out more.

After the general election, the Labour government was quick to announce a major shake-up of the Whitehall digital scene, including the creation of a restyled ‘digital centre of government’.

This tech hub was created in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology which has, effectively, replaced the Cabinet Office as the nerve centre of digital government.

But, while the civil service’s core technology agencies may be operating from a new location, it was revealed this week that ministers will keep the same name on the shopfront – that of the Government Digital Service.

Despite some speculation that the incoming administration would put its own stamp on the digital government agenda with a new and rebranded entity at the heart of operations, there has, instead, been a marked show of faith in GDS.

The digital unit has not only retained its place, but has gained significant new responsibilities and personnel, having been reunited with the Central Digital and Data Office, which was spun out of GDS four years ago to focus on cross-government strategy. Also being absorbed into GDS are the Incubator for Artificial Intelligence and the Geospatial Commission.

This consolidation – and the launch of some major new public digital services – were announced with a good deal of ministerial fanfare this week.

The detail of the changes, and what they will mean for GDS’s incumbent and new staff members, and the organisation’s role in the coming months and years, was explained in more depth in an accompanying policy paper: A blueprint for modern digital government.

A key section of this document was dedicated to giving an overview of “the new Government Digital Service”.

“We’ll be responsible for taking a strategic view of national opportunities and risks, developing more strategic relationships with technology companies of all sizes, and proactively monitoring and addressing threats to resilience at a national level,” it says. “There are some things we will stop doing, especially things that are delivered better outside the centre, or where central ownership slows down teams. That will mean radical consolidation of guidance and standards for digital and technology, retiring out-of-date and duplicative things, updating critical ones, streamlining the information teams need and making it easier for them to understand what to do.”

Structure
The headline reunification of GDS and CDDO is aimed at “reducing duplication and ensuring a clear single place for departments and other public sector organisations to go to”, the policy paper says.

The newly expanded digital unit will also be expected to “take full advantage of the transition into DSIT to join up our approach to using digital technologies in the public sector with government’s approach to digital technology in the broader economy”, the document adds.

The blueprint suggests that GDS’s engagement with agencies across Whitehall will be supported by a more formal “account management structure to enable more strategic partnership with government departments and other partners”.

The digital hub will also be expected to “expand its scope to include catalysing change and join-up across the wider public sector, starting with local government and the NHS”, according to the policy outline.

This work will be supported by a newly created Service Transformation Team, which has been established with a remit to bridge departmental and wider public sector boundaries to help deliver more joined-up citizen services. This team will focus initially on support for those with long-term health conditions. Going forward, its work will closely align with the five missions of the Labour government.

Another area where government will seek to boost GDS’s skills will be artificial intelligence, where the organisation will be expected to “evolve central AI capabilities in line with the AI Opportunities Action Plan, to meet the existing and emergent challenges and opportunities”.

Strategy, standards and spending
The blueprint reinforces the new strategic and governance duties – that were formerly housed in CDDO – that will now be taken on by GDS.

Since 2022, CDDO’s most high-profile role has been to oversee the delivery of the existing three-year government-wide digital strategy, which reaches its end point in March. A key pledge contained in that plan was to ensure that at least 50 of the specified top 75 citizen services across government meet an ‘great’ service standard. This narrowly focused scheme will be shut down “in favour of a focus on catalysing deeper service transformation”, the policy paper says.

In the coming months, the outgoing strategy will be succeeded by a new “overarching vision and strategy for government digital” developed by GDS, “including publishing a new Government Digital and AI Roadmap in summer 2025”, the policy paper says.

The digital centre’s wider ongoing role will incorporate “setting strategy in specific cross-functional areas or domains, to include legislative development, data and sourcing strategy”, the document adds.

GDS will also regain the responsibility – that it held from 2011 to 2021 – for “applying central spend assurance and digital spend controls”.

With long-term departmental budgets due to be set over the coming weeks, the digital unit will also be expected to help “effectively prioritise spend in Spending Review Phase 2 to drive greater efficiency and interoperability” across government. During this process and beyond, this will involve “ensuring close collaboration with HM Treasury and the Cabinet Office, and with other cross-government priorities including the national missions and public sector reform”, the blueprint says.

 In the years to come, the organisation will also be tasked with “negotiating whole-of-public-sector commercial agreements” for technology, digital and data services. 

The reincorporation of CDDO also means that GDS will take on the brief of “setting the policies and standards that digital teams must meet when designing and delivering services, building or buying products, and running a digital function”.

This will include the administration of cross-government frameworks and policies including: the Service Standard; Technology Code of Practice; Functional Standard; GovAssure; Secure by Design principles; data standards operated by the Data Standards Authority; Data Maturity Assessment; and Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard.

But, the blueprint says, there are likely to be changes to much of government’s existing guidance, with plans afoot to “reform controls, in favour of more strategic, data-driven decision-making using performance metrics”.

Additional governance measures to be applied by the expanded GDS will include “measuring and managing digital performance across government via a consistent metrics framework and governance model”.

The tech unit will also take on greater responsibility for developing a “cross-public sector view of national technical resilience”, while “providing shared cybersecurity services”.

Skills and careers
The policy overview outlines that one of GDS’s roles will be “supporting and advocating for the profession” of technologists throughout the civil service.

In the near term, the unit will be asked to “assess the overall package for digital and data professionals, including remuneration”.

As it moves forward, work will evolve to include “managing and building on the Government Digital and Data brand to aid recruitment”. In doing so, GDS will take on the remit of “maintaining and building out the Capability Framework” that maps out the various roles that comprise the digital profession.

For existing civil servants, the digital centre will provide support by “championing the work of teams across government, by shining a spotlight on good practice”, while also “building community, including by supporting the development of communities of practice”, the blueprint says.

GDS will also convene efforts to the bring together senior figures from across Whitehall, “including the Functional Leadership Group for Chief Digital and Information Officers”. 

The digital unit will be expected to use its own expertise to help build similar levels of capability to departments by “providing direct ‘centre of excellence’ expertise to practitioners across government, in particular in AI, risk and resilience, service delivery and data”.

Digital delivery
In addition to its many new roles and responsibilities, GDS will also maintain those of the narrower remit it has held in the past four years: for developing, maintaining and continuously improving common digital platforms and services for government.

This includes the GOV.UK website and the soon-to-launch GOV.UK App, which will offer citizens a single smartphone application for accessing services across departments. The digital unit will also take over from CDDO in overseeing the ongoing delivery of the new One Login system.

GDS will continue its brief of maintaining the other common service components it has developed for government, such as GOV.UK Notify, Pay, and Forms.

It will take on the responsibility of managing public sector web domains – including all gov.uk addresses.

Future priorities for GDS’s software developers and other tech experts will include “incubating AI products, and scaling these into cross-government services”, according to the policy paper.

The organisation will also be set the task of “defining a common public-sector approach and delivering centralised infrastructure for verifiable digital credentials”.

GDS will be responsible for delivering some of the Labour government’s major commitments to tech initiatives, as set out in its election manifesto: “Building the National Data Library and delivering the National Underground Asset Register”.

Sam Trendall

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